Vesta in ViewJul 04, 2011

Planet: In orbit around the Sun;
massive enough to possess a rounded
shape; and with little (if any)
remnant debris from its formation
left in orbit. Based on that
definition, there are eight planets
in the Solar System: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune.

Dwarf Planet: In orbit around the
Sun; massive enough to possess a
rounded shape, but its orbital
environment is not clear and it is
not a moon. The dwarf planet Ceres
resides in the Asteroid Belt. Pluto
(voted by the IAU to be a dwarf
planet in August 2006) and Eris are
located in the Kuiper Belt, with
Sedna farther out in the
hypothetical Oort Cloud. Pluto is
also considered to be the first of a
new celestial body classification,
"trans-Neptunian objects (TNO)."

Small Solar System Bodies (SSSB):
Refers to all other objects in orbit
around the Sun, such as asteroids,
comets, and moons.

NASA
launched the Dawn
spacecraft on September 27, 2007.
Its scientific mission is scheduled
to begin on July 17, 2011, when it
enters orbit around the largest
asteroid in the Solar System,
Vesta. Vesta is now the
largest asteroid, comparable in size
to Saturn's moon Enceladus, because
Ceres was moved into the dwarf
planet category. Heinrich Wilhelm
Olbers discovered Vesta in 1807.

Ceres was the first asteroid
discovered by Guiseppe Piazzi in
1801 and was the largest known until
its promotion. Ceres has a diameter
of 950 kilometers, but since no
spacecraft has visited Ceres its
size is an estimate derived from
combining various telescope
observations. Ceres is about as
large as Saturn's moons Tethys and
Dione. Dawn will visit Ceres in
February 2015, after spending a year
circling Vesta.

Vesta appears to have experienced
violent collisions at some time in
the past, since several large
craters mar its surface. One crater
is 460 kilometers in diameter,
making it more than 80% as large as
the asteroid itself. Whatever formed
the crater gouged out a hole 13
kilometers below the asteroid's mean
elevation. The rolled rim is about 6
kilometers higher than the mean. In
the center is an 18 kilometer high
peak. As has
been asked many times in
these pages: Why did an impact that
removed more than 1% of the
asteroid's mass not blow it to bits?

Planetary scientists ignore
electrical explanations because they
know almost nothing about plasma and
electric currents in space. The
"rubble pile" theory of asteroid
composition was created to help
explain the mass anomalies that have
been seen in asteroid crater
studies. It is the only available
explanation in a gravity-based
model. Asteroids are supposed to be
"loosely compacted," so it is
presumed that they act like big sand
piles and absorb impacts without
shattering. Asteroids therefore have
no hard crust, according to
consensus viewpoints, so they do not
fracture despite repeated pounding.

In an Electric Universe, it is
unnecessary for one object to crash
into another for craters to exist.
Electric arcs can gouge surfaces and
scoop out material, accelerating it
into space, leaving clean, deep
pits. Based on
laboratory analysis,
plasma discharges probably eroded
Vesta (and other asteroids and moons
with large, deep craters).

Stephen Smith

New
DVDThe Lightning-Scarred
Planet Mars

A video documentary that could
change everything you thought you
knew about ancient times and
symbols. In this second episode of
Symbols of an Alien Sky, David
Talbott takes the viewer on an
odyssey across the surface of Mars.
Exploring feature after feature of
the planet, he finds that only
electric arcs could produce the
observed patterns. The high
resolution images reveal massive
channels and gouges, great mounds,
and crater chains, none finding an
explanation in traditional geology,
but all matching the scars from
electric discharge experiments in
the laboratory. (Approximately 85
minutes)

Our multimedia page
explores many diverse topics, including a few not covered by the Thunderbolts Project.

OUR VISITORS:

Authors David Talbott and Wallace
Thornhill introduce the reader to an age of planetary instability
and earthshaking electrical events in ancient times. If their
hypothesis is correct, it could not fail to alter many paths of
scientific investigation.
More info

Professor
of engineering Donald Scott systematically unravels the myths of the
"Big Bang" cosmology, and he does so without resorting to black
holes, dark matter, dark energy, neutron stars, magnetic
"reconnection", or any other fictions needed to prop up a failed
theory.
More info

In
language designed for scientists and non-scientists alike, authors
Wallace Thornhill and David Talbott show that even the greatest
surprises of the space age are predictable patterns in an electric
universe.
More info

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in the Thunderbolts Picture Of the Day are those of the authors of
the material, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Thunderbolts Project.
The linking to material off-site in no way endorses such material and the Thunderbolts
Project has no control of nor takes any responsibility for any content on linked sites.